Brandon Meriweather’s two-game suspension for repeated blows to the head has been reduced to one game on appeal, according to The Washington Post. The Redskins safety will now miss Sunday’s game in Denver, but is eligible to play the following week at home against San Diego.

Citing a source, the Post reported that Meriweather’s appeal was heard by former NFL coordinator Ted Cottrell, one of the two appeals officers jointly approved by the league and the players’ union. Meriweather will lose one game’s pay — $70,588 based on his $1.2 million salary.

Meriweather was originally hit with two games by the NFL on Monday for “repeat violations this season of NFL safety rules prohibiting hits to the head and neck area of defenseless players.” He was flagged twice in Sunday’s game against Chicago, for helmet-to-helmet hits on receivers Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall.

The plays drew criticism by Marshall for Meriweather, of whom he told reporters “has no place in the NFL” and deserves to be banned, much less suspended. Teammate Martellus Bennett agreed, telling reporters that he believed Meriweather was hitting opponents illegally on purpose.

Meriweather also had been fined $42,000 for a hit on Green Bay running back Eddie Lacy earlier this season, and three other times in the previous three seasons while a member of the Patriots and Bears.

Meriweather is the second player this season to have a suspension reduced or overturned on appeal; Tampa Bay safety was suspended for a game for a hit on the Saints’ Darren Sproles, but won his appeal and was fined $100,000 instead.

After Sunday’s game, Marshall told a Chicago television station, “A guy like that has no place in the NFL.’’ He also told the Chicago Tribune, “I respect the league trying to better our game and guys like that, maybe he needs to get suspended or taken out of the game completely.’’

On Monday, Bennett told a Chicago radio station, “I still want to punch him in the face ... There's a way to go out there and be a beast when you hit people, and have nobody want to come across the middle. But then, there's a way not to do it where you're deliberately hitting guys (in the head) or after the game you're saying, 'Oh, I've got to pay,' because you know what you did was wrong when you were doing it.’’

In turn, Meriweather’s teammates with Washington jumped to his defense.

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall said of Bennett on Wednesday, according to the Post: “I don’t know him personally, but he had a chance to say whatever he wanted to during the game, after the game, and the kid didn’t open his mouth. So no respect for a guy who wants to take a shot after the fact. If you want to take a shot, take a shot when you’re right there. No respect for a guy like that.”